Companion Planting

Let's use an example. Marigolds are great at deterring pests such as aphids from feeding on your vegetable plants and will repel nematodes. These are the workhorses of Companion Planting.

Another example may help. Tall sunflowers planted on the west side of the garden will act as shade to protect the lettuces and greens from too much heat. The spatial arrangement in this case did the trick. In the fall, I plant peas on a trellis and another cool weather veggie such as oriental cabbages below them. The peas shade the cabbages and provide nitrogen to the cabbages.

Last season many were plagued by striped cucumber beetles. The beetles feed on the members of squash family and transmit bacterial wilt, leading ultimately to the vegetable plant's death. Cucumber beetles hone in on the "smell" of the cucumber plant. If given a choice, they prefer cucumbers to say ~ cantaloupe plants. In a community garden or large field of any plant of the squash family, we could trap the cucumber beetles by placing a couple flats of cucumber outside to the garden site. The early emerging beetle would be attracted to the concentrated cucumber smell and then you would trap crop the beetles. You would only have to spray or kill the beetles on those flats, eliminating or reducing the need to spray the entire field or garden site for the beetles.

One crop that is used to nurse or protect another crop is basically a nurse crop. This can be considered a type of spatial enhancement. Often we plant rye between fields to reduce the wind velocity over the garden or field. The rye is planted in strips between fields. The young transplants in the spring are protected by that crop. What's next? Cut the rye down before it goes to seed and use the rye as mulch.